GOD
We believe in the one true God Almighty, the Creator of the heavens and earth, who exists in three persons—God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. He is all powerful, all knowing, omnipresent, omniscient, and sovereign. (Genesis 1:1,26; Psalm 90:2; Psalm 100; Romans 11:33-36)
JESUS
We believe Jesus is God’s one and only Son. He is fully God. We believe that God, in his great love for us, sent his Son, Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary and conceived by the Holy Spirit. As the Son of God and the Son of Man he lived a life without sin and was offered as the perfect sacrifice because he was without sin. He was crucified and on the third day he rose from the grave and was resurrected to sit at the right hand of God. (Isaiah 9:6; Matthew 1:22-23; John 1:1-5, 14:10-30; Acts 1:9-11; Romans 1:3-4; Hebrews 4:14-15; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
HOLY SPIRIT
We believe the Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit which indwells inside of every believer in the moment of conversion. The Holy Spirit is our counselor, our guide, our teacher, and convicts the world of sin. The Holy Spirit transforms us and equips us to evangelize and do the work God calls us to do. He gives us the power to live the Christian life as we yield ourselves to him. (John 14:16-17, 16:7-13; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 2:12, 3:16; Galatians 5:25; Ephesians 1:13, 5:18)
BIBLE
We believe the Holy Bible in its entirety is the inerrant Word of God, written by divine inspiration for divine instruction. It is useful for correcting, teaching, rebuking, and training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 4:12)
SALVATION, SIN, OURSELVES
To sin means literally to miss the mark. No matter how hard we try or how good we think we are, humans do not have the ability to live a perfect sinless life. We all fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23).
The Bible says that the wages of sin are death (Romans 6:23). God is holy and just and so sin must be punished (2 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Peter 1:15-16). Levitical law demands that there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. There can be no sin in God’s presence. If that is so, who will save us from God’s wrath and this meaningless way of living?
We cannot rescue ourselves from sin. If we could cleanse ourselves of sin, then we could claim our own righteousness and Christ would have died in vain. The law does not provide the solution. We can only become a child of God through his grace (unearned favor). What the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering (Romans 2-8).
In his great love, the Creator of the Universe sent his Son to die in our place. Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sin. He stood in the gap by laying his life down for us. It is because God wants us to live for him that shame and guilt were taken away on the cross. It was because of his love for us that Jesus took the wrath of God, so that you and I could have a personal relationship with him. Our sin has been nailed to the cross. We are free from the curse of the law. The blood of Jesus covers us from the wrath of God.
The old covenant law required the priests to sacrifice lambs without defect to take away sin. Repeatedly, priests would offer these sacrifices. But Christ, our Blameless Lamb of God and Great High Priest came to sacrifice himself to redeem us from sin once and for all. And when he finished, he sat down at the right hand of the Father. Jesus sat down because the work was finished and our sin debt was paid in full (Hebrews 9-10).
God knew that we would never have our spiritual inheritance with the penalty and power of sin in our lives. He has provided a way to have freedom from your sin through Christ.
Jesus has done his part on the cross, but we must receive his grace by faith (Ephesians 2:8). How do we do this? The Bible says that when we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord, we are saved from the penalty and power of sin. (Romans 10:8-13)
